As a teammate, Ji Heng couldn't conscientiously agree with such ridiculous remarks, so he responded rather subtly: "You might be overthinking it."
Soul asked uselessly, "Really?"
"The game doesn't go to great lengths to scheme against a player."
It was like a highly sophisticated machine, devoid of personal emotions. If it were a human operating it, they would have already increased the difficulty of the dungeon and let Su Er get caught in it.
After listening to the analysis, Su Er's eyes wandered, and finally he said, "I'm going to the bathroom first."
The light in the toilet was not very bright. When he entered, he caught a glimpse of the single room on the right and suddenly remembered Jiang Yi's death, where he was pressed into a bucket and drowned.
Ghosts like to replicate their pre-death state on humans, so there is a high possibility that Chen Ziwen also drowned.
After going to the bathroom, washing his hands and looking at himself in the mirror, Suer fell into deep thought.
Manufacturers, unloaders, teachers, students... these are the only people who have the opportunity to come into contact with milk.
Since the copy agreed to Zhang Xiaohua's mission, it proved that the true culprit could definitely be deduced from the current clues. Currently, there was no information pointing to the first two, so they could be skipped.
"Teacher..." He had thought of this possibility, but what was the motive for the crime?
Coming out of the toilet, Suer went straight to the office and looked at the place again with the perspective of suspecting someone of stealing an axe.
The lesson plans are written very carefully. There are many teaching guides in the cabinet. All the newer question types are outlined with a pen. No matter from which angle you look at it, he is very responsible.
He sat down, ignoring the dust on the stool, and stared at the table for a long time. In fact, when he was rummaging here last night, Su Er felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
His eyes remained motionless for about a minute, then he suddenly flipped through the pile of documents.
The honor certificates he'd received over the past few years looked out of place among the pile of documents, all in hard-shell packaging that took up a lot of space on his desk. He also found a few paper certificates among his lesson plans, which teachers inevitably had to look through daily, so he'd inevitably see them every time.
A sound suddenly came from the corridor. Sur didn't turn around and continued to think quickly.
Ji Heng appeared outside the door at some point, crossed his arms, and asked, "When did you become so defenseless?"
Suer focused on the certificate: "I could tell it was your footsteps."
Ji Heng smiled and asked, "Did you find anything?"
"This teacher attaches great importance to honor." Suer's eyes changed, and he had a vague guess that was not good.
The confiscated note said, "Meet at the usual place." While it's unclear how the student explained this, Chen Ziwen must have felt guilty. The most likely action was to quickly move the fox statue hidden in the flowerpot.
Yet the statue remains there.
Su Er: "Chen Ziwen was killed by his twin brother before the poisoning case. Could he have died in the toilet?"
Jiang Yi was unlucky and encountered an evil spirit while going to the toilet.
"Hoohoo..." Someone was testing the microphone: "Now I have some good news to announce."
"It's the fortune teller." Su Er was stunned: "What is he doing in the broadcasting room?"
The voice coming from the radio was a little unclear——
"Congratulations to players Shan Meng and Jin Liya for successfully finding their graduation certificates. The current number of remaining players is 5."
Ji Heng glanced outside and said, "The fox's effect is good."
Suhr thought differently: "Broadcasting it specifically will add a sense of urgency."
If one's mentality is unstable, he or she will easily go to extremes.
He actually didn't have much pressure on time, as he had the mysterious pocket watch to save him if necessary, and the clues were becoming clearer.
"I want to find Chen Ziwen to confirm something."
"good."
As the number of players decreased, the corridor became even quieter and there was no sound at all.
I usually try every means to avoid ghosts, but now when I look for them seriously, I can't find any trace of them.
The tip of Sur's nose moved from time to time.
Ji Heng: "What are you smelling?"
"Fox smell."
Not to mention that his nose is quite sensitive. Although there is not much smell on the fox, he can still smell that little bit of residual smell.
I walked all the way to the bathroom on the fifth floor, and Jiang Yi's body was still there, with a few green-headed flies flying around him.
Chen Ziwen sat on the wooden board in the compartment, stroking the fox's fur in his arms and enjoying the tragic scene of the corpse. The uninvited guest interrupted his pleasure and he stopped petting the fox.
Sur spoke from a safe distance, "When you escaped not long ago, the Ghost King was surprised that you didn't choose to fight to the death."
Chen Ziwen said nothing and looked gloomy.
Soul: "Why do we have to perish together?"
He was like a Gu raised by a fox fairy. He had no potential or ability to become the new Ghost King. His obsession was revenge, but he gave up the rare opportunity.
Chen Ziwen jumped down from the partition and stared at the bucket filled with blood and sewage. "Do you know what it feels like to drown?"
Soul shook his head honestly.
"First, water kept pouring into my ears, nose, and mouth. Then my lungs felt like they were exploding. In the last moment, I was even praying for gills to grow." Chen Ziwen grasped Jiang Yi's collar to demonstrate: "My head was hit by a brick. Half of my body was numb, but I was still conscious."
He pressed Jiang Yi's head hard into the pool: "That idiot is like that, suffocating me little by little."
They could imagine an extremely cruel scene, and Suer and Ji Heng frowned one after another.
Soul looked him in the eyes and asked the most concerning question: "Is there one murderer... or two?"
As soon as the words came out, Chen Ziwen's lifeless pupils suddenly showed a strange color, like an NPC whose plot was triggered. He changed his attitude drastically and said a lot more than usual.
"The other day, a classmate asked me to meet him at the usual place after class, but the note was confiscated, so I lied and said the usual place was the game room." There was a cruel smile in his eyes: "Because I was worried, I hurried to the restroom to move the statue after school to make sure everyone had left."
What happened next has just been demonstrated. He was ambushed by his own brother and pushed into the water and drowned.
Suer made a less pleasant guess: "But your teacher didn't believe that and left school and came back?"
Chen Ziwen sneered, "It must be that shameless snitch Zhang Xiaohua. She loves pretending to be a good student in front of the teacher."
His eyes passed over Soul and he slowly raised his arm and pointed towards the door. "The teacher was standing there at the time. I heard her scream."
Chen Ziwen's expression was tinged with madness. "I couldn't move, but I was still conscious. I even thought I could be saved... But Chen Ziwu said I was dead. He also told others about our family situation and told the teacher that even if he disappeared, my alcoholic father wouldn't care."
"He said he would be Chen Ziwen from now on and go to a good school, and begged the teacher not to tell anyone."
Su Er's tone was a little depressed: "Most people would choose to call the police."
"When a child dies, parents often vent their anger on the school and teachers," Ji Heng said with surprising calmness. "Sometimes people are irrational. Besides, as long as Chen Ziwen's identity remains, he'll have a place in a good school."
Chen Ziwen gently touched the fox in his arms: "Thank God, the Fox Fairy, I didn't sleep in darkness forever."
Su Er suddenly asked: "Where is your body buried?"
"The grove behind the playground." Chen Ziwen's eyes softened a little, unusually. "There's a ditch next to it. I used to love playing there in the summer."
At this moment, a notification sounded in Su Er and Ji Heng's ears at the same time: [Triggered quest 'Chen Ziwen's Revenge': Help Chen Ziwen complete his revenge, and he will clear half of the incorrect pages in the Book of Answers for you.]
Suer's eyes lit up. Chen Ziwen was much more generous than his brother. In the Ghost King's game, he only promised to eliminate ten error pages.
"The teacher comes to burn paper outside the school every year," Chen Ziwen said coldly, "I can't leave this school. You find a way to let her in."
Su Er and Ji Heng looked at each other and nodded: "In exchange, you have to tell me, was she the one who did the poisoning?"
Chen Ziwen showed a chilling smile.
"I couldn't figure it out at first, but then the Fox Fairy told me that the teacher was worried about the truth being exposed, especially after learning that my brother's grades were a mess."
Even if he entered a good school, he would not be able to catch up in a short time. Besides, how could he not show any flaws in front of his biological mother?
Chen Ziwu is not an adult, so the law can only educate him. But it is different for teachers. The crime of harboring murder is not a light one.
"In previous years, she would come to burn paper at the end of the month, which is tomorrow." Chen Ziwen said sinisterly, "I hope you won't let me down."
After saying that, he leaped away with the wishing fox and disappeared temporarily. Su Er frowned and said, "Hand in Zhang Xiaohua's task first. I hope she believes this."
Ji Heng: "The mission is to use the game as a trading platform. As long as the conclusion is correct, the copy will automatically complete the transaction."
As he spoke, he walked to the window, put the incense that could attract ghosts into the flowerpot, and lit it again.
About five minutes later, Zhang Xiaohua showed up. She had been waiting for a human being and was very unhappy to be interrupted.
Su Er had acted like a demon to Zhang Xiaohua more than three times. He quickly got to the point, "It all started on a rainy day."
Zhang Xiaohua glanced at him and temporarily suppressed his murderous intent.
"You met a fox fairy and refused to cooperate with her, but secretly lured your classmates to worship her and made money by selling birth charts." It seemed to be drizzling outside, and moist mist floated in. Su'er's eyes were covered by the rain and mist, and he could not see the light clearly.
"Because of your scheme, Chen Ziwen became a follower of the fox spirit, until one day he was caught passing a note in class."
Zhang Xiaohua interrupted: "I told the teacher that they often gathered in the bathroom after school."
The results came out that day, and she was ranked second in the class again. Since she had sold all her horoscopes, she vented her anger by telling tales.
Suer spoke the following story in an extremely complicated tone. When Zhang Xiaohua heard that Chen Ziwen was killed by the twin brothers and the teacher was an eyewitness, she couldn't help but open her mouth wide.
"In order to prevent the truth from being exposed, she chose to poison."
"Impossible." Zhang Xiaohua retorted subconsciously.
"If you only poison one bottle of milk, the purpose is too direct, and mass poisoning is the best protection."
When encountering such a situation, most people would start with the manufacturer and then investigate the staff. Teachers and students are rarely listed as screening targets.
No matter how deeply she was shaken, Zhang Xiaohua did not question the statement anymore because the transaction had been deemed a success.
The invisible force in the dark agreed with Sur's statement.
Reluctantly taking off the butterfly hairpin: "Here."
Su Er took it and asked what it was for, but Zhang Xiaohua refused to reveal a single word. Then, she suddenly stared at Su Er's book of answers and asked, "Want to make a deal?"
The next second, a notification sounded: [Triggers the quest 'Zhang Xiaohua's Revenge'. Zhang Xiaohua has been repeatedly bullied at school by Chen Ziwen, and her revenge is to stop Chen Ziwen's revenge. Once her wish is fulfilled, she will help you clear half of the incorrect pages in the Book of Answers.]
"…"
The two tasks are contradictory, the rewards are the same, and it is difficult to offend either side.
Suer tried to reason with him: "As a victim of poisoning, you..."
Zhang Xiaohua said frankly: "In school, only the teachers were kind to me."
She remembered that, except for the fake Chen Ziwen, the first group that day had the milk distributed by the teacher himself, and the ones after that were all picked randomly. She was just unlucky.
"The person I hate the most is Chen Ziwen," Zhang Xiaohua said, emphasizing each word. "He insults me every day at school. He calls me a slut because I wear shoes with holes in them."
If you can't take revenge, the other party must be very painful.
"I hope you won't let me down."
Before leaving, he actually said the same words as Chen Ziwen.
Su Er rubbed his brows: "No matter who you help, the result will not be good."
If Zhang Xiaohua helps Chen Ziwen, he will definitely fight them to the death, and vice versa.
Ji Heng: "We'll see what happens tomorrow."
·
The rain got heavier in the second half of the night and cleared up near dusk the next day.
The departure of Shan Meng and Jin Liya invisibly added pressure to the players. In the classroom, Suer saw Liu Wen being chased by ghosts three times on the playground within an hour.
As time passed, everyone spontaneously sped up the pace of turning pages.
At dusk, Suer and Ji Heng were lurking near the gate. When the former was bitten for the third time by mosquitoes that were eager to eat after the rain, he finally saw a figure in the distance.
The person walking over was the head teacher of Class 2, Grade 6... Lin Junzhen.
She almost tripped over a stone on the road, obviously walking absent-mindedly.
Cloudy days easily trigger sad resonances. Lin Junzhen recalled the sins she had committed in the past and asked herself from the bottom of her heart...Do she regret it? Actually, not really.
When the poisoning occurred, she bit her tongue and feigned grief, feigning vomiting blood. She then recuperated at home, spreading the message that she couldn't bear to see a student die in front of her. This allowed the parents to vent their anger at the principal, and also allowed her to avoid police questioning.
Everyone praised her as a good teacher. In the past two years, when the Internet was not well developed, the media published the story of her burning paper and worshipping every year. Relying on her touching deeds and the sponsorship of several students, she recently wrote a memoir, portraying herself as a gardener who was reborn from grief.
At the age of over 40, Lin Junzhen has already gained both fame and fortune.
While burning paper, I was thinking about what to post on my WeChat Moments when I got home that night.
Ji Heng glanced at Suer, asking him with his eyes what he wanted to choose.
Zhang Xiaohua's task is actually easier to complete. They just need to do nothing and let the teacher leave.
But this is tantamount to letting a real sinner go.
Su Er pursed his lips, and finally stood up and walked over.
·
[Warning! Copy parameter error!
Error codes 0012, 0019, 5387... Please repair them quickly.
Warning! Incorrect copy parameters!
New error codes 402, 653... Please fix them quickly.]
The fortune teller appeared at the school gate almost instantly. When he saw Su Er, he asked directly: "What did you do?"
Su Er still had the phone he had snatched from the woman in his hand. He was a little confused by the sudden questioning. "Report it to the police." He paused and said, "When the poisoning happened, the technology was not advanced."
Before knocking the woman unconscious, he had already forced her to reveal the source of the poison: potassium cyanide stolen from his brother's factory. Chen Ziwu couldn't have moved the body alone, so his teacher must have been involved in hiding it. And considering Chen Ziwen's family situation, solving the case was within reach.
The most important thing is that this not only helps Chen Ziwen complete his revenge, but also prevents him from taking revenge.
The fortune teller's face was gloomy: "What are you going to say when the police come?"
Su Er had already thought of an excuse: "We are internet anchors who came to the abandoned school to seek excitement. We happened to hear this woman burning paper and confessing her sins, and she also said that she hoped the ghosts would let her go."
It is common for people to become mentally unstable after committing murder. Even if the other party denies the crime after waking up, they cannot prove that they are lying.
After hearing this, the fortune teller clapped expressionlessly: "The reporter needs to leave a message. Where is your ID card?"
In some special copies, the game will provide players with role identities and tell them in advance what role they need to play.
This copy clearly is not.
"…"
The Divine Calculator: "There are more than one corpse of failed players in the school. What should we do with them?"
"..." Su Er hesitated for a moment: "Can't it be recycled with one click?"